SEN. MULLIN: 'This is why they wanted to wait until after today.' | Squawk Box

Mark's day 35 of the government shutdown, tying for the longest shutdown in American history. Joining us right now is Oklahoma Republican Senator Mark Wayne Mullen. And Senator, thank you for being with us today. As this drags on, you have more and more people trying to figure out how and when this ends. There has been some reporting this morning from the Hill and other places suggesting

that there are talks taking place behind the scenes. Are you aware of any of those talks with, I guess, moderate Democrats and Republicans kind of trying to figure out how to open things up?

Yeah, I wouldn't really say it's been negotiating. It's timing more than negotiating. The Democrats that I've been privileged to have a good relationship with, I mean, we've talked, I don't know how many times, around the table at my house.

Last night, we're having a conversation. It's all about the timing of an off-ramp. They've been looking for an off-ramp. They thought after the No Kings rally, they would have an off-ramp. Unfortunately, Chuck Schumer felt like

it tightened their grip, that they couldn't allow the Dems to release their hold on the government and quit using the American people as hostages or to leverage points. And so they wanted to wait until after today because they were afraid if they opened the government up

before today, that their base wouldn't show up and vote in Virginia and New Jersey where we have tight elections. And of course you have your, you know, as you guys have been referring to, your interesting mayor,

as I like to refer to as your communist mayor, that's going to ruin the great city of New York. But after the day, the negotiations to keep Dick Durbin from voting with us last week, which would have caused a jailbreak, because he's a number two Democrat in the Senate,

he had expressed concerns about continuing keeping the federal government closed. The conversations that took place in a long conference was if you'll wait until after Tuesday, he will release everybody and allow them to vote the way they want to.

So that's why I have said it very bullishly last week and all weekend is that, Becky, we're gonna probably start negotiations tomorrow with the Democrats claiming victory or claiming the higher road. I don't know what they're going to say. I can't discuss what or can't predict what they're going to say.

But either way, we'll probably have the vote in the Senate either tomorrow night or Thursday. Then the House has got to come back because we're going to have to make some changes to it. We've got to change the date and there's discussions about maybe putting three appropriation bills on the CR2.

You think it's possible we could reopen the government this week then?

Yes, I think we'll be open by Sunday. It depends on that member once we vote on it, the House has 48 hours to basically get back. Now what I know the House GOP is having a conference call today. I will imagine on that conference call they're going to tell their members to they're going to go ahead and put their members on a 48-hour notice telling they need to be back here Friday. So they could they I mean there's going to be some

discussions there too because like I said Becky we're going to change the the the CR because we got to change the date at minimum. What we would like to do is date only carried through later this month. So we're already.

It's just like almost a

bookkeeping.

The Senate does it goes back to They put that in there. And then it's then it's done. Senator I've often likened the Democrats to the board collective from Star Trek. I mean it's almost they vote as a monolith a lot of times and I

think the Republicans could learn something from that. You got all these wackos, you know, making a name for themselves. Democrats really never do that. But you know, looking for a few good men or women and I found one and that that is John Fetterman who I don't know how he's not gonna be allowed to stay in this party because this is what he said, he's not going to be allowed to stay in this party. Because this is what he said, I feel like the Democrats really need to own the shutdown.

I mean, we're shutting it down. We need to find a way forward. I do believe we can get these kind of tax credits, but this is the wrong tactic. It was wrong when the Republicans did it, wrong now that we're driving it. We're hurting the very people that we fight for, and we're getting nothing for them. We continue to keep the government shut down. This is wrong.

And all he's doing is just saying factually. I mean, I watch Hakeem Jeffries, what he says. None of what he's saying about this is in the real world.

It's at best, it's distortion and dissembling and untruths.

So I don't know. I don't know what you do.

Well, Joe, if you listen to Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Senate and of the Democrat Senate and Hakeem Jeffries, leader of the House Democrats, they both talk just out, I mean, 100% talking points that are not mistruthsuths or 100% lies. What John Fetterman is doing is just telling the truth, but the guy is a very independent

thinker. I mean, think about it. Look at the way he dresses. He walks to his own drum. He's unapologetic. He and I became pretty close acquaintance during the, during our orientation.

And we've kind of maintained that relationship. I wouldn't say we're friends, but we definitely have a good working relationship. And the guy just, he just says the truth. I mean, he just, what's on his heart, he feels it. And we all respect that. And who would have thought, as tough as that race was in Pennsylvania,

that John Fetterman would be the voice of reason in the Democrat party. But he's a grand total of one. That's the whole point. Just by speaking the actual truth, he's a grand total of one. I mean, you don't have to be a crazy hoodie-wearing, like, rebel. Where are the rest of them? Where's Warner?

Apparently waiting for Durbin to release them. I mean, Senator, that's what you think is actually going to happen, that after today

they'll be released and you will quickly see a bunch of people that flood over? They almost left last week because because they're just upset listen everybody flew home this weekend and came back today we are all avoiding connections because we couldn't go through a hub because the connections were being delayed the flights were being delayed and who would who blames TSA workers for taking personal time off so they can go earn some income? Who blames the air traffic controllers

for taking some personal time off so they can go earn some income? They've been without a paycheck for a month now.

It is ridiculous. You can't expect people to work without a paycheck and put up with shenanigans by any stretch of this. But man, is there gonna be some soul searching after all of this? Like how do we prevent this from happening again?

This is stupid theater.

Well, we have to. Yes, we've got to seriously take a look at how to prevent future shutdowns. There's got to be a trigger that takes place. I'm not for getting rid of the filibuster as a whole, but maybe there's some triggers after 10 days, Becky, that if the government is shut down for more than 10 days, that there's some small concessions that put in place to reopen the essential part of the government and get these people paid and until that Congress can work out their differences, there needs to be serious conversations moving forward because when parties are using the American people as quote, leverage, that's

what the Democrat Party leadership has said for the last 35 days, that's a problem because we're playing with people's lives. So this isn't a policy fight, Becky. This is a political fight that the Democrats are fighting and we're trying to have a policy discussion. There's two totally different voices being spoke here and there's no room to negotiate.

You can't negotiate policy over politics. It doesn't work that way. And so you find yourself in the longest shutdown in history which is where we're at today. So 16.8% of your constituents

in Oklahoma didn't receive their expected SNAP benefits on November 1st,

is that correct? It was, I mean the numbers have jumped back and forth on which one is is correct but it's interesting because I spoke to Governor Stitt about this on Thursday and he was saying, listen, the state's making some extra precautions, working with the tribes, making sure that we're having the benefits.

I was talking to church leaders, one church group in Muskogee, Oklahoma fed 120 people last night. That is unheard of. But it was interesting what the governor said. The governor said, yes, this is awful.

We have some funds we're going to be using to fill the programs, but it's given us for the first time an opportunity to look underneath the hood and we're discovering all types of fraud at the state level that we're able to cut right now because of this shutdown. So I guess there's a little bit of benefit, but it's not benefit enough to keep the government shut down and keep people's snap cards from being filled because there that's what we're talking about. We're talking about a full snap program. We're not talking about a full snap program.

We're not talking about a full snap program. We're not talking about a full snap program. We're not talking about a full snap program.

We're not talking about a full snap program.

We're not talking about a full snap program. We're not talking about a full snap program. Just looking through, if you will tell us, will you give us a heads up if you start to see movement on this, if you think that, OK, we're really here? Because if you say we can reopen the government this week, that is music to just about everybody's ears.

Will you keep us up to speed, keep us up to date on what's happening?

Yeah, you bet, Becky. And I'm telling you, I'm very confident we're open or we open the government back up before the week's out.

From your lips, Senator Mullen, thank you very much for joining us this morning and we're hoping for that outcome. we're hoping for that outcome.

Thank you.